Poroshenko authorises a blockade of the Donbas

On 15 March 2017, the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine (NSDC) decided to immediately suspend freight traffic on the demarcation line between the areas controlled by the Ukrainian government and the self-proclaimed ‘republics’ in the Donbas. The prohibition does not include the transport of small quantities of food etc. by pedestrians and cars.

For more than a month now, an unsanctioned ‘social’ blockade of shipments of coal, coke and iron ore, carried out by armed veterans of the ATO (anti-terrorist operation, as the ongoing war is officially called in Kyiv), has been going on in the area. The decision by the Ukrainian government has been denounced not only by Russia, but also Germany and France; in the latter countries’ view, this is another step delaying the implementation of the Minsk agreement.